Application Ratings?

General (non-technical) K-12 / University
#1

not sure where to place this question, I am trying here:

when rating an application, how to select rating for violence?

I am making an app now that is addressing young children. It is a story based app and the story does contain violence (to emphasize the conflict the main character is in). The violence will not be shown, but implicitly referred to.

I am very unsure what to do about the rating, if the rating is too high then the app will not be available for children.

I am not from the US and as a kid I was told e.g. stories collected by the Brothers Grimm. I wonder if these might even be prohibited today in the US/the App Store.

How to practically solve that problem? Any insight is very welcome. [import]uid: 109677 topic_id: 25419 reply_id: 325419[/import]

#2

They prompt you through several questions to determine the age rating. Just answer them honestly and let it sort out as it may.

You are going to be prompted to answer these questions:

Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Realistic Violence
Sexual Content or Nudity
Profanity or Crude Humor
Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
Mature/Suggestive Themes
Simulated Gambling
Horror/Fear Themes
Prolonged Graphic or Sadistic Realistic Violence
Graphic Sexual Content and Nudity

and rate them on the following scale:

None Infrequent/Mild Frequent/Intense

It sounds like you may answer “None” to the two violence questions, but then choose Infrequent/Mild for the Horror/Fear Theme question.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate radio button for each of those, you will then get an age rating. For my app, OmniBlaster, a space shooter, I picked Infrequent/Mild for the Cartoon Violence (it’s frequent but ships blowing up is pretty mild) and I got a 9+ rating.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 25419 reply_id: 102694[/import]

#3

Ja, I tested that and infrequent/mild pushes it up to 9+ and that omits my target age group, which is I think 4/5-7. So I am really very unsure about that.

If one applies that rating to Brothers Grimm tales, they would be rated 9+ or even 12+. Which is regarding concept meaningless. So how to rate and still maintain meaning? [import]uid: 109677 topic_id: 25419 reply_id: 102699[/import]

#4

Honestly, it is likely that they will download the application anyway. Before developing apps, I had my iPhone 2 years and never even noticed the age recommendations. [import]uid: 59735 topic_id: 25419 reply_id: 110358[/import]